Foot pain can be caused by, for example, inflammation, bruising, fracture, or other irritation. For example, in plantar fasciitis, pain is associated with inflammation of the plantar fascia band. Foot pain can be a debilitating condition that negatively affects a person's quality of life.
A side effect of pain is often unwanted muscle contraction in the area as the body attempts to adjust to the pain, resulting in muscle spasticity. This tightening of the muscle in the area tends to exacerbate the situation, causing the pain to increase.
Peripheral magnetic stimulation (PMS) has been used to evaluate conduction times of peripheral nerves. Magnetic stimulation has advantages compared to electrical stimulation. Magnetic stimulation allows for deeper stimulation, inducing lower current densities through the skin where pain receptors are located. In general, the magnetic pulse frequency is low because high frequency pulses can result in heat buildup in the magnetic coil.
It has been shown that high frequency stimulation has an inhibitory effect on nerve communication, so direct stimulation of a muscle with high frequency stimulation would have a relaxing effect on a muscle and also have an anesthetic effect on nerve fibers in the stimulation area.